Codec
What is it?
A codec (coder-decoder) is software or hardware that compresses (encodes) and decompresses (decodes) media files. Codecs make large audio and video files smaller for storage and streaming while keeping quality. Popular video codecs include H.264, H.265/HEVC, and AV1.
Practical example
When exporting a video in Premiere Pro you choose codec H.264 for web distribution (good balance of quality/size) or ProRes for archiving (high quality, large files).
Test your knowledge
What does a codec do?